LECTURE 1171.

Of adorning a reformed faith by a reformed practice. If the preceding chapter may justly be applied to the corruptions of Christianity and to their reformation, this chapter and that which next follows may be no less justly considered as foreshewing the errors and defects, which have more or less prevailed in all the churches so reformed. They fit indeed other times and seasons well. They fit the case of the Jews at the period of our Lord's first coming in the flesh. And they might be well applied by that people to their own condition in the times of the Babylonish captivity. But in the general language of prophecy, and amongst the many particular cases of good and evil to which it may correctly be applied, it is best for us to see in it the representation of our own faults, and the means provided for leading us and helping us to repent of them. And alas, how true to the life is the account here given of that formality and hypocrisy in religion, that observing the letter of ordinances, without caring for their spirit, that fasting for strife, or sabbath keeping through force of law and custom, rather than out of any delight in honouring the Lord's day, which have infected many protestant communities, and to which our own must in part plead guilty! At the present day indeed fasting does not happen to be an ordinance thus at once outwardly honoured and inwardly slighted. But how true is it now of many, who seem to "take delight in approaching God," as far as regards sabbath keeping, that though they would on no account absent themselves from church, yet on the very same day they enjoy their carnal pleasures, and exact of those who serve them a more than common portion of worldly work! How true is it of many, who pay large sums to promote charitable works, that they take no delight in relieving the oppressed, that they give no more than that which costs them nothing; and that as far as regards selfdenial, or any exertion of their own, they redress no wrongs, they relieve no wants, but rather hide themselves, by the intervention of others, from those, who however abject in poverty, are nevertheless made of one blood with themselves! Oh let us lay to heart, how great is the reward here set forth for those, who in these things live according to their Christian profession! Let us honour God, by really delighting in his ordinances. Let us prove that we love Him, by loving one another, and kindly relieving each other's wants at our own cost and inconvenience. And behold, we shall then have God for our Guide continually. When we call, He will answer to our prayers. We shall be counted for children and heirs of Jacob his chosen. And by adorning a reformed faith with a reformed practice, we shall be entitled to such glorious names as these, "The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."

Calamities denounced against sinners in God's church.

1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know

had no eyes: we stumble at noon
day as in the night; we are in
desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and
mourn sore like doves: we look
for judgment, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far off
from us.

12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.

18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.

19 So shall they fear the name

of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever. LECTURE 1172.

20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.

The awful amount of wickedness in Christian lands. It is common to speak with complacency of our own times as most enlightened, and of our own country as most highly favoured with the knowledge of the truth. And certainly in regard to privileges vouchsafed to us by God, we have ample ground for praise and thankfulness. But when we consider the use made of his good gifts, when we look around us far and near, when we review the history of Christendom, even since the period of the blessed Reformation, how much do we find to fill our hearts with grief, and to overpower our souls with shame. In the intercourse of Christian nations with each other, what continual recurrence to violence and bloodshed; what avowed insincerity in treaties of peace; what exclusive selfishness in commerce; what oppression and partition of the weaker by the strong! In the systems of government, and in the conduct of such as administer authority, what a tendency to impose upon those beneath them a yoke of subjection, more strict than needful for the common good! In the governed how many fierce outbreaks of a spirit resolved to submit to no will except their own, and bent upon setting at defiance both the ordinances of man, and the express commandments of God! And in private life what an awful amount of open and secret infidelity; what pride, what covetousness; what robbery and wrong; what cruelty, what wrath, what strife; what impurity, gluttony, and drunkenness; what wasteful luxury, in dwellings, dress, and sumptuous fare, with multitudes hard by unpitied, unvisited, unthought of, perishing in hunger, cold, and nakedness, and in all their wants whether of body and of soul, without the help, or that which they would value scarcely less, the sympathy of their fellowcreatures! What a dreadful day of reckoning for sins like these is here foretold! What a mercy, that He who threatens vengeance, also promises salvation! Let us take care that we act on his side now, by practising and upholding truth, justice, and humanity, for his sake, according to his will, and with a view to his glory. For then we may take to ourselves the gracious promise, that his Spirit will abide with us for ever. And come when He will to take vengeance on his enemies, we may then trust that we shall be graciously dealt with as his friends.

The increase of the Church in numbers and glory.

1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

4 Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.

7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall

come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

8 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

11 Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.

12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

13 The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

LECTURE 1173.

Of our arising and shining in the light of the Lord. In the order of God's providence there is a time for all things; a time for his church to be desolate, whilst its enemies glory in their seeming triumph; and a time also when his church is thus addressed, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come;" whilst darkness shall cover the world, and gross darkness all other people. But what time is here intended? Was it when the church arose, and shone, after seventy years captivity in Babylon? This surely

can answer only to a small portion of the full sense, in which the words of this prophecy must be taken. The Gospel, and the times of Christ, the dispensation of the New Testament, from its beginning to its end, and especially the latter days of its continuance, and the great accession of both Jews and Gentiles which will then flow into the church of Christ, and the high eminence of faith and holiness, the sincerity of devotion, and the abundance of peace, with which the Church shall then be blest, these surely are the things, which it pleased the Holy Spirit of God here chiefly to signify by the mouth of the prophet, whilst it was yet many hundred years ere Christ would be born into the world.' Here then is that which may suggest to us thankfulness for the past, as well as hopefulness for the time to come. The glory of the Lord has long since arisen in Christ Jesus on his once desolated church. The Gentiles have come to its light, and their kings to the brightness of its rising; to the light in which the Church arose, a light reflected from the Sun of righteousness. The progress made at the first in the conversion of the world was enough to fill the hearts of the beholders with mingled awe and joy. The multitudes who hastened in early times to profess their allegiance to the truth, and to dedicate their substance to the glory of the Lord, the building up of the Church by the sons of strangers, its gates thrown open to admit the Gentiles and their kings, the inferiority of the nations which refuse its service, and the comparative excellency of those which contribute to its ornament and glory; all these are things which our eyes have seen, or our ears have heard, and which we know to have been realized according to God's word. However much therefore we may hope to see his word more fully realized hereafter, let us thank Him devoutly for its fulfilment thus far up to this present time. And not knowing what more we may be spared to see, let us consider, that as far as we ourselves are concerned, our light is come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us, and we therefore are here called on to "arise" and "shine!" Let us then arise from all worldly sloth, from all carnal indolence, let us arise from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Let us arise, and shine. Let us make our light to shine before men, that they may glorify Him by whose light we have light. Let us shine in the graces of the Gospel, in devotedness of love to God, and of zeal in the building up of his church. And then whether or not we live to see it flourish more as we would wish in this world, we may rest assured, that we shall have part in the bright shining of its joy and glory, in the world which is to come.

Thanks be to Thee, O God, for the glory which Thou hast given to thy church hitherto, glorify it in thy good time more and more. And grant that it, and we therein, may glorify Thee, by growth in faith, and love, and grace, through Christ our Lord.